Voice of America journalistic standards and editorial decisions are discussed along with general media issues.

14 December 2009

Give ‘Em Hell, VOA - Part 2

We recently quoted former U.S. President Harry “Give ‘em Hell” Truman as saying back in 1948 about his political rivals: "I don't give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it's Hell."

We used the quote to explain why it is that VOA has only to report the news accurately and objectively and some foreign officials, usually in repressive countries with no free press, quickly complain.

The latest case is Zimbabwe, where the state-controlled Herald newspaper now describes VOA as a “pirate radio station.”

Real “pirate radios” rose to fame in the 1950’s and 60’s in Europe, when several, mainly commercial, broadcasters took to the seas, sending out programs from vessels anchored in international waters to circumvent strict government regulation of the airwaves in various countries.These radios mainly broadcast popular music of the sort that couldn’t be heard on state-run stations.

(For the record, VOA did mount a sea-based broadcasting operation back in the 1950’s in an initiative approved by President Truman.The Coast Guard cutter Courier was designed to provide a ship-borne radio relay station to transmit VOA programs behind the "Iron Curtain." She was stationed in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean off the island of Rhodes, Greece.

But VOA is no “pirate radio station” by any stretch of the imagination.It is a legitimate international broadcaster and it has been since 1942.

Zimbabwe has also taken to criticizing neighboring Botswana for hosting one of VOA’s transmitter relay facilities -- or as Zimbabwe puts it, “hosting pirate radio stations.”

The government of Botswana has just responded, noting “there is nothing exceptional about Botswana hosting the radio relay broadcasting facilities for an international broadcaster such as VOA.”

As a Botswana government statement also noted, “the VOA relay station, located near Selebi-Phikwe, has been in open operation for three decades. Its frequencies are filed with the International Telecommunications Union. The VOA relay transmitter was not constructed to relay to Zimbabwe alone, but to the region as a whole, including of course Botswana. The Government of Botswana is unaware of any broadcasts being relayed by VOA from the facility could be considered as hostile to Zimbabwe.”

Botswana also made the point that hosting international relay stations like VOA’s is consistent with a protocol agreed to by all Southern African countries which provides for a diversity of opinion and free flow of information in the region.

So like a recent VOA editorial said: “If the Mugabe regime really wants foreign-based stations to stop broadcasting into Zimbabwe, let it release its grip on the media there, liberalize the press and broadcasting environment, and domestic radio stations will flourish.”

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VOA Media Watch

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 125 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages. The VOA Media Watch, formerly called the VOA News Blog, discusses the editorial integrity and quality of VOA content and responds to inquiries, comments and complaints from the general public and others related to that content. The Media Watch thus serves as a public source of information, explanation and analysis regarding VOA's journalistic standards and practices. General media issues are also discussed.

Alex Belida is the chief writer for the VOA Media Watch. He has been in international broadcasting since 1971. He served as Managing Editor of VOA News from 2004 to 2007. Before that he was a correspondent in Europe and in Africa. He has also served as VOA’s Senior White House Correspondent and as Pentagon Correspondent. Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. He is a recipient of the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Director of VOA.